


Paths

by dogmatix



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Jedi Apprentice Series - Jude Watson & Dave Wolverton, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Gen, Qui-Gon is a stupidhead, Sith!Ahsoka, gonna skip a lot of the action, not intentionally, sith!Anakin, the Jedi Council are dicks, this might be structured oddly, universe hopping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-05 07:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12789795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogmatix/pseuds/dogmatix
Summary: Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi meets the ancient enemy of the Jedi Order and faces a test of his convictions, but not in a way he would have expected.





	Paths

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to @norcumi for the beta.
> 
> Obi is about 19 here - this is set shortly before TPM

Obi-Wan picked his way carefully through the patchy grass, staying low to the ground as he approached the upthrust rocks.  Beyond them, the ground sloped gently down a short ways to another set of old ruins, overgrown and collapsed.  Not a very threatening sight, on the face of it, but in the Force, it was another story altogether;  Darkness drifted on the breeze like the fetid stench of decay.  

He also had to keep in mind the pirates. At least, they were assumed to be pirates.  Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had stumbled across word of what was quite likely imposters posing as Jedi.  There hadn’t been anything specific about this planet that pointed to it being their hideout, but it was in the right area to be a convenient base, and given a lack of further evidence, Qui-Gon had them searching world by world.

Qui-Gon himself was on the next planet in, searching though jungles and beaches.  Obi-Wan had been on-planet only a few hours when he’d picked up a garbled transmission. Following it back to its source had led him here – not a promising development.  He shot a glance at the broken towers and cracked walls.  Sith or some other Dark faction, and the only blessing was that it was long abandoned.

There were voices audible now, and Obi-Wan ghosted along the back of one large boulder, getting within hearing range.

“-s is General  Skywalker hailing on all frequencies.  Please respond.  I repeat, this is General Skywalker haling on all frequencies. Is anyone out there?”

‘General’? Obi-Wan frowned.  All the evidence had pointed to three beings – a human, a twi’lek, and a rodian – involved in the deception.  Nobody had mentioned an entire army. Even a small army would be trouble. He risked a quick glance around the boulder, catching a glimpse of a human and a togruta before ducking back behind cover.

Well, the human dressed like a Jedi, if in darker colours than one would typically encounter.  It had been hard to estimate ages from the back, but the human was probably a few years older than Obi-Wan, and the togruta about his age. The togruta also had a padawan chain hanging from her head, but if she were a Padawan, Obi-Wan should know her by sight, if not by name, and he didn’t recognize her at all. Her outfit, while not a traditional Jedi one, would easily pass in the Temple, and he thought he’d caught a glimpse of a lightsaber hilt at her belt, even seated as she was.

The togruta sighed, and there was the sound of someone stretching. “Ugh, this phrase doesn’t want to parse at all. Why did the old Sith have to be so karking obtuse?”

“Because they were paranoid bastards,” the human said, a trace of wry humour in his words, “and Kittât is made of angry wasps.”

“Urrrgh,” the togruta agreed.

“I’ll have a go at it in a minute, but Kittât’s never been my strong suit.”

“We’ll never untangle the spell at this rate,” the togruta said, frustrated.

“Patience, Apprentice.  We’ll figure it out.”

Obi-Wan didn’t know which way to jump. Something was clearly very wrong, and he was trying not to let his imagination run away with him, but all the talk of Sith spells had him on high alert.  The _way_ they were talking didn’t fit with what they were talking _about_ , but…it was worrisome.

“This is Krayt,” the human said, and it sounded like he was talking into the comlink again, but hadn’t he called himself ‘Skywalker’ earlier?  “Shadow, are you there? Wraith? Maul?  If any of you are picking this up, we kinda lost our ship. Is anyone there?”

Empty static crackled over the com.

“I’m telling you, Skyguy,” the togruta said, “that flash of light was a spell. It did _something_ to us.”

‘Skyguy.’ A third name, or a permutation of ‘Skywalker’? Obi-Wan tried to make sense of any aspect of the duo.  No Jedi would be this blasé about Sith spells and ruins, but no Sith would be this casual, surely?  All of that aside, they didn’t dress anything like what the history holos showed of Sith, and there was still the worrying mention of military rank.  Had these two somehow been displaced in time? Were they from the Jedi-Sith wars a thousand years ago?  It was ludicrous, but so was the idea that there were actual Sith on the other side of this rock.

“If you’re right, that means we have to recast the karking thing,” the human said.

“It went off automatically though?”

“Yeah, but someone had to lay the trap in the first place. If it’s not triggering again…”

The togruta groaned. “Sith hells.”

“Yeah,” the human said, sounding sympathetic. “And let’s hope it doesn’t require specialized components or death magic, because it looks like we’re kinda stuck here.”

“You’re not dying to get me back home,” the togruta said immediately, flat and serious.

“If only one of us can get back home-“

“No. We’ll figure something else out.  Anyway, we don’t even know what the spell needs.”

“It’s old Sith. You know what they were like.”

“Then we’ll find some other idiot to fuel it, but I’m not going to go borrowing trouble. Aren’t you the one who always tells me to keep my mind on the here and now?”

Obi-Wan remained crouched, frozen in shock. Sith. They were Sith. They were _Sith_.

His com crackled to life, and ice flashed through Obi-Wan’s veins. He’d forgotten to silence it. Force, how could he be so _stupid_?

Qui-Gon’s words were lost to the roaring in Obi-Wan’s ears as he ignited his lightsaber and ducked under the togruta’s weapon.  Swinging his lightsaber around, he aimed for the torso, but found his blow blocked by her second lightsaber, a shoto held in a reverse grip, and- green?

A short flurry of blows later, Obi-Wan found himself looking down two lightsabers at the Sith pretending to be Jedi.  He was disarmed and probably about to die, and Qui-Gon would walk right into the same trap-

“Who are you?” the togruta asked angrily, nudging her lightsaber a bit closer to this chest.

He closed his mouth and raised his chin defiantly.  He might be about to die, but he wouldn’t give them any information to use against the Jedi.

His com crackled to life again.  _“Obi-Wan, are you there? Answer me.”_ His stomach twisted in on itself, and he closed his eyes, cursing silently.

One of the lightsabers disengaged, and Obi-Wan opened his eyes to find the human kneeling next to him.  He remained still as the Sith plucked his com from his belt.

“This is Anakin Skywalker, who am I speaking to?”

There was a long pause _.  “I am Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. If you have taken my padawan, I suggest you release him immediately.”_

“Are you a Jedi?  Or are you just blowing smoke in my eye?”

It was an odd phrase, but Obi-Wan had bigger concerns.

_“You may have encountered beings claiming to be Jedi who weren’t, but I assure you, my padawan and I are both Jedi.  Harming Obi-Wan would be a bad decision on your part.”_

“Not what I was talking about, no,” Skywalker muttered to himself, frowning.

Obi-Wan considered trying to wrestle the com back from the Sith, but the Apprentice still had her lightsaber trained on him, and he didn’t think he’d get more than a word or two out, if that. It might be worth it, if he could warn Qui-Gon about the two Sith.

Skywalker took two steps back, putting him out of range of easy grabbing.

“Okay, we’ll release your student, but this is a complicated situation. If you-“  The sound of an energy blast hitting a hull made all three of them tense up.  Qui-Gon let out a curse.

“Was that-“ Skywalker started, but the com had gone dead. Pressing the send button, Skywalker tried to reconnect. “Qui-Gon? Qui-Gon!”

“The pirates,” Obi-Wan said, stricken.  “They must have found him.” The Sith gave him an intense look, obviously thinking hard, then gestured to his Apprentice.

The togruta raised an eyeridge, but powered down her lightsaber.

Skywalker stepped forward to kneel by Obi-Wan, putting them at eye-level again. “We both need things, and we can get them better by working together,” he said.

“What-?”

“Ahsoka and I are stuck here. If you were eavesdropping, you’ve probably figured that out.”

Obi-Wan refused to blush, but wasn’t sure how well he succeeded.

Skywalker nodded.  “All we want is to go home.  And you, you want to go rescue your Master, right? So let’s help each other.”

Obi-Wan compressed his lips, conflicted. Sith couldn’t possibly be trusted, but they’d had him at their mercy, this didn’t make any sense, unless… “This is a trap.”

“Trap or not, it gets you your lightsaber back, and backup to rescue your Master,” Skywalker said, holding out Obi-Wan’s lightsaber to him, emitter first. “So what do you say? Do we have a deal?”

“I won’t…I won’t turn against the Order.”

Skywalker shook his head. “Not asking you to. All we need is time and transport,” he shrugged, “and maybe access to the Jedi Archives, but we can figure that out with your Master.”

“How do you know you can trust me?” Obi-Wan’s eyes flicked from his lightsaber to Skywalker.

“I guess I don’t. That’s why they call it trust.”

They could have killed him. Or left him alive but taken his shuttle, leaving him stranded. He couldn’t figure out why they were offering him this if it wasn’t a trap, but he couldn’t afford to say no, either.

He knew he should refuse them, that any sane Jedi would prefer death to compromising with a Sith.  He swallowed hard.  “Deal,” he said, and reached to take his lightsaber.

 

 

 


End file.
